New organisational structures and the transformation of academic work

Abstract

This article will particularly focus on Norway and the consequences for academic work. Frequently in studies of academic work, focus has been on academics’ individual autonomy and to what extent the latter is challenged (Altbach in Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci 448:1–14, 1980; Shattock in High Educ 41:27–47, 2001). One of the shortcomings in literature dealing with academic workplace is lack of attention paid to the emerging division of work generated by an increasing differentiation of the academic profession (Musselin in Knowledge Matters, The public mission of the research university, 2011). In order to better address complexities and dynamics that surround academic work, the article will in particular examine whether academic work is subject to an increasing specialization and collectivization. In our attempt to observe changes in the practices of academic work, particular interest is given to “how the organization of an academic enterprise affects academic work” (Blau in The organization of academic work. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, 1994:8). Inspired by organizational theorists such as Brunsson and Olsen in The reforming organization. Brunsson and Olsen (The reforming organization. Fagbokforlaget, Bergen, 1997) we also want to attend to the relations between organizational change and academic work. Here we address the relationship between formal organization and informal organization which is likely to develop as decoupled structures—one adapted to institutionalized norms of society and the other for coordinating activities. Furthermore, there are tendencies suggesting that universities are becoming less special as an organization (Musselin in Key challenges to the academic profession. INCHER-Kassel, Paris, 2007) and converge to more general organizational characteristics by constructing dimensions of organizations such as identity, hierarchy and rationality (Brunsson and Sahlin-Andersson in Constructing organizations: the example of public sector reform, Organization Stud 21:4, 2000). In this article we are mainly interested in how hierarchy is constructed enabling coordination by an “authoritative centre” (Brunsson and Sahlin-Andersson in Constructing organizations: the example of public sector reform, Organization Stud 21:4, 2000:726) and how it interferes with traditional forms of organizing the university. This calls for a concern to whether the specificity of academic work, built of the mainly individual exercise of a large diversity of tasks, remains a key characteristic for organizing academic activities at universities. Empirically this article studies changes in academic work regarding new patterns in organizing research funding and doctoral education in Norway that emerged in the last decade. Like in other European countries, new policies for research funding and doctoral education have led to the creation of new organisational structures within Norwegian HEIs, namely research centres and doctoral schools.